Huggable loveable (sentimental) fleece

      I am certainly a fleece addict. I have spoken about this before. I can't help it. So soft. Such fun prints. Such a quick sew with results that turn my kids into the most squeezable cozy little things around. When it is cold (which it typically is around here for several months out of the year - this year is not a shining example of this) they will go head to toe in fleece outfits. I might have to admit to doing the same thing myself in the name of pajamas when we are lounging around the house.
      So far this winter, I have made fleece leggings for myself (in a killer multicolored leaf print), for my husband (yup, leggings for him; he can wear them under his work pants - I even included a fly flap! black of course) and for each of my four nieces and nephews. I also made a cowl neck sweatshirt for my sister in law, and, point of this post, outfits for both of my girls at Christmas time.  I will have to come back another time to show you all the fun things I did with fleece on Halloween. So there is a small taste of my addiction. Not one I am even trying to shake however.
      Two years ago I made both girls fleece dresses and they still wear them, but the fit is getting pretty tight. It was time to update. I kind of wanted to make them look like little elves on Christmas and the younger one is totally into it. She was happy with me choosing all of the design elements of this outfit (we agreed together that she wanted a hood to snug up in). So she got a pointy, gnome-like hoodie in a plaid print. The front waist line is rounded, meaning that it arches up in the center. It is subtle though and can be hard to notice in the pictures. The skirt portion of the hoodie is cut on the bias for interest of the print direction. There is also a high-low hem that ended up being more dramatic than I intended, but I have decided I like it.

 I didn't even hem the bottom of this one. I planned to, but after she tried it on, 

then refused to take it off for a while, I realized it doesn't bother me. Fleece! Gotta love it. 

       

    Another thing I am becoming addicted to are heart shaped knee patches. So simple, so cute, so much more fun than plain solid colored pants.

           My older daughter wasn't willing to ride the hoodie train like her sister, so we moved away from the gnome / elf feel a bit on hers. Instead we went with a big cozy cowl-ish collar attached to a dress with a full skirt. The cowl is a contrasting fabric, which I like - it seems like she is wearing an infinity scarf. I used a long sleeve t-shirt pattern from an ottobre magazine as the base for both of these, hacked a bit obviously. On this dress I tried to hack it into a v shaped front waistline but that didn't work for me. Perhaps the fabric was just too bulky? Or else I should have cut the skirt differently. I ended up have to flatten it out a bit which added some extra fullness to the skirt in the form of those gathers that you can see in the picture below.

    I also made her some green fleece leggings with red knee patches. 

 You better believe there are heart patches under there!

     I really was drawn to this cardinal print fleece. It was a different kind of fleece; anti-pill instead of blizzard I guess; or maybe it was even micro fleece. Point being that it was even softer than the other stuff. 

     But mostly this is a sentimental thing for me. My whole family loves cardinals. My grandfather always loved them, along with anything red. Since he passed, we always seem to see cardinals hovering about when we are all together, particularly on special occasions, and we all agree that it seems to be his way of watching over us. This December we lost my grandmother. She had been experiencing dementia and kept forgetting that he was no longer alive, so she was constantly seeking him out. She was missing him so much. The last time I saw her, she spoke to me as if she were on the phone with me, not in the same room, holding my hand. She seemed to be holding two conversations; one with me and one with him. As if she were actually with him at the time and talking to me from across a divide. And soon afterwards she was finally able to rejoin him completely. Eleven of us spoke at her funeral. My brothers words brought happy tears to my eyes, as he asked us all to picture the joyous reunion the two of them were having. Shortly after my grandmother died, my mom had a male and female cardinal pair visiting her bird feeders. I have always loved watching cardinal pairs. They seem to have such strong bonds, neither wanting to stray far from its partner. A perfect image to frame in a heart. And possibly a reminder to treasure these kids, while they are so sweet and young, and are so unencumbered in their love for us, before all of these moments just go racing by.  

   

 Thanks for stopping by.

Mes Deux Demoiselles

Project Run and Play is really proving to be inspiring and fun for me so far this year, and it is only in its second month! I started this month not sure if I would join in- it is SO COLD here the Mademoiselle Muscle Tee from Living With Punks wasn't speaking to me at first. But having the whole month is enough time to let ideas bounce around in my head and start to meld with other things that have been inspiring me.

Two of my first projects of this year were, maybe not complete failures, but certainly a chance for me to eat my words  (I had told my SIL over Christmas that my sewing is going great and things are generally turning out as I intend them to). I rarely sew for my husband, so I figured for his birthday in January I could whip up a quick pair of grey sweats to replace his favorite, completely worn out, pair of Champions. The combination of that zero stretch sweatshirt fleece (which caught me off guard, I didn't realize there wasn't any stretch at all in something so comfortable) and the fact that I was sewing for him and not a five year old girl really got me off my game. I did finish them and he wears them daily, but they required a full crotch adjustment, several mouthfuls of words I don't want my kids to learn and about five times as much time as I thought I would spend on them.

I am also in the midst of sewing myself a pair of jeans, which I thought I could wing using a pattern I have for stretch pants. Alas, I added much more than necessary to the pattern when I cut it out, used flat felled seams for the crotch when I started sewing and already put in a fancy false zipper with the double needle and have come to realize that the fit is terrible and I am going to have to seam rip those nicely finished areas to make up for it. Ugh.

So I hope these things can just come in twos and that I don't have a third sewing disaster in my near future. In the meantime, I had the excess black stretch denim from my jeans lying next to a spontaneous purchase I had made of a couple yards of this lovely peony print knit that was on a sale rack by the cutting counter (I am such a sucker for this; I just about always impulse buy a yard or so of something whenever I go into JoAnn's). They looked so nice together, I figured they would be making an appearance sooner or later. Then I went back to JoAnn's to take advantage of a sale to get set up for another project I have been dreaming of, and the remnants were 50% their 50% price, so ....
a yard and a half of this lovely stretchy white lace made it into my basket. I also had a red knit shirt in my repurpose pile, which capped off my pile of inspiration (I LOVE being inspired by fabrics):

With all of this coordinating fabric I started planning a mini collection instead of just one item.

So far I have complete three of these items, so without further ado:

Mes Deux Demoiselles

Althea (on the right) is wearing a dress with the muscle tank as the bodice in black stretch denim and an a-line skirt made from the peony knit. 

The bodice has one of the peonies cut out and appliqued to it (with a straight stitch since the knit doesn't fray) on top of an appliqued lace heart (attached with a zigzag of white thread). 

The neck and arm trim is sewn on in the style of quilt binding, meaning that I folded a strip of fabric in half, and first sewed it to the inside of the garment instead of the outside. Then I folded the trim out and over the seam line and sewed it again from the outside of the garment, there by enclosing the seam. (The denim would have frayed otherwise). I used the salvage for the bottom hem of the dress - I like how there is a thin edge of white along this edge (only the opposite salvage bore the designers info).

As you can see, she can move really well in it!

  Fern is wearing two items: a Mademoiselle muscle tank with the front and back pattern pieces cut and pasted a bit. She also has a simple half circle skirt with a two inch waist band.

  She was very jealous when I finished her sister's dress, and was coveting the appliques. Althea declared herself "The rose princess" when she first tried on the dress, and although Fern's skirt was already done, she was so sad that she didn't have a shirt to match. This led to a big discussion of being happy with what you have and choosing happiness over sadness. It also led me to add a flower heart to Fern's shirt. I hadn't been planning to do this; I didn't want them to be total twinsies (although the same print on the skirt and skirt of the dress means they basically already are). But it is a cute addition I think, and this shirt will be great over some stretch pants.

 Worn with the skirt, I think it looks best tucked in. 

 The lace on the shoulders and the back bodice are all one piece: I folded down the arms on the front bodice and cut out the red knit like that. Then, I trace the folded section onto a separate piece of paper, cut it out and taped this onto the back bodice piece. (I know it would have been easier to cut the pattern piece itself, but now I have it still in one piece for next time)

      I added the neck and arm trim the same way I did it on the dress (sewing it to the inside of the shirt, folding over and stitching again to the outside, enclosing the seam) because I thought you would see the red raw edge through the lace. But I actually think I should have just done it as the tutorial recommends. Both of these fabrics are so fine, they laid down nicely along the seam and wouldn't have posed a fraying problem. They weren't very noticeable through the lace either. Seeing as I had already sewed them on backwards though, I proceeded as planned. This resulted in such a thick pile of fabric stacked on top of itself in the hems that there is some bunching now. 

      Well, now I know for next time! This is a great pattern that my girls are still growing into - it fit a little larger than expected on them, but I would always rather have it that way then too small!
      They love their "rose princess outfits" and now will get to enjoy them for years to come!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jasmine Bubble Pants

     Project Run and Play is changing it up a bit this year. They are featuring a previous contestant each month who provides a tutorial and then folks can sew something up and join a link party. Simpler than in past years, but kind of nice. More my speed anyway in terms of participating. Let's see if I can join the party every month this year. I like having really achievable goals that can jumpstart additional inspiration. I will also say that if I do sew along, I will do my best to turn it into an item that is already on my to-sew list. And I will try not to buy fabric. There, a handful of reasonable goals. Excellent.

    This month, they have Alida sharing her bubble dress tutorial. It looked pretty cute. I was thinking about what fabric I would use. How I would personalize it. If it should be a dress or a shirt or what. And then I realized, it would be a great way to make some Princess Jasmine pants! I have to confess that it is more my idea than the girls that they need some Jasmine pants.  I just love that style of huge comfortable pants in fun flowy fabric. So I had told Fern I would make her some recently. This was a great opportunity to make that a reality. 

   Alida's tutorial is great, very easy to follow. I've never made a bubble dress, so it is fun to think about new techniques / styles. In order to make the dress be pants, I cut 2 pieces measuring pretty much the same as she described, but with crotch areas cut out. I forgot to make my liner pieces mirror images of each other (sewing with a head cold, man!), so I ended up with pants that don't have a front or back, since I had to trim the fabric to line up once I pinned the crotch seams together. I was worried that the rise would be too low in the back, but that tall waist band makes up for it! Phew. They are definitely low slung, and her belly pokes out a bit, but hey, they are Jasmine pants after all. 

     I used a two-toned, reversible, shiny, turquoise-gold fabric that was given to me in the incredible fabric stash gift that Althea's nightie came from for the outer fabric. For the liner, I used a woven cotton that I found in a free pile a while ago. So double score, free fun pants!

       The first thing I did was sew the bottom of the outer leg and liner leg together and do the shirring (I did 3 rows instead of two; I also cut the outer pieces wider than the liner gathered it for even more puff). Then I sewed the tops together. Then, turned each leg right side out and sewed the pants together as I would with any pair of pants (flat-felled seams for the crotch, french seams for the inseam). 

  

    Then I folded the waistband down to reveal the liner fabric, and turned this into a casing for the elastic a la the tutorial from the bubble dress. I kept the waistband the same as Alida's dress; I like the way she inserted her elastic about a half inch below the top of the waistband, creating a ruffle at the top. 

     Many things I've sewn for Fern lately have been too short - she is so tall all of a sudden! So I wanted to make sure that wasn't the case with these. They brush the floor and she thinks it is perfect. She is the sassiest little model, I can't get enough of her. And she loves these pants, so we are both happy. I do enjoy creating costume-ish clothes that are well made (unlike anything you find in stores for kids dress up) and that can be mixed into their wardrobes to add some whimsical fun.

Watching her prance around in them is a special bonus for me!

She replaces the word balance with "bounce". She's always yelling "Hey mom, see my bounce?"

I love her attitude in this one!

Sister photo bomb

 Thanks for the tutorial Alida! This was fun.

  It's an exciting time of year in the land of sewing blogs! Project Run and Play time! (A really fun spoof on Project Runway that takes place online as a sew-off between bloggers that sew for their kids). The main reason I started this blog was to be able to participate in sew alongs like this one, and to be able to comment on all the amazing things that I see others posting. There are so many incredibly inspirational acts of sewing happening out there! I don't know if I will be able to sew along every week since we have a little trip coming up, but I will try for at least three out of four.
   I was a little late catching on to the start date and themes of this season, but fortunately the theme for week one is "Winter Wonderland." This fit nicely with some sewing projects that I already had planned and designed and was set to sew. I mentioned before that I went a little nuts at Joann's during a fleece sale they had in early November. Dresses for all of us was what I had in mind, and potentially some leggings as well, because who doesn't want a pair of fleece leggings when it is 5 degrees outside?
So here are the girls in their dresses!

I posted about Althea's Red Riding Hood dress already, so I will just talk about Fern's Unicorn dress right now. I was trying to encourage them to pick a solid color of fleece at the store, but she fell in love with the unicorn print instantly (not surprised!) and was so enthusiastic about it that we compromised and got about 1/2 yard of the print and picked a coordinating color to make up the rest of the yardage. I love the result! I drafted the pattern myself and gave it a shawl collar, wide Aline skirt, on seam pockets and color blocked cuffs and skirt length. I also decided to make her a unicorn hat to match the one I made her sister for halloween, since she wears that hat all the time. You can't tell from the above picture since she wisely decided to wear her mud boots outside for these pictures, but she also has some color blocked fleece leggings to go along with the outfit. (Somehow head-to-toe fleece seems less absurd to me when I dress them in it then if I were to do the same for myself)

This was the first time I added a shawl collar to anything and it came together much more simply than I had been bracing myself for. I should have been focusing more attention on the sleeves probably, than the collar because they ended up getting a little bit awkward on me. It looks like there are some shoulder pads in there. This is a case where it would probably have been easier on myself if I were not too cheap to buy a pattern like the Bimaa Pattern I have read so many wonderful things about (which isn't expensive, but I have this stubborn streak where I always want to try figuring out the math of sewing myself instead of forking it over for patterns).

Nonetheless, she is so enamored with this fabric that she loves the dress no matter what. And that is why she gets to come to the store to pick out fabric with me! I am happy I got that white unicorn front and center right beneath the collar.

The dress is very long as you can see, and the cuffs are folded in half right now, so hopefully it will continue to fit her for a while!

Here she is in our "winter wonderland" reality: our muddy / wet / frozen ice skating rink of a back yard. She was quite excited to be Princess Unicorn out there though, on her Unicorn Skating Rink (until she fell in a big puddle and completely soaked herself; then indoors we went for some hot chocolate).

Here are her leggings poking out under her dress:  

And here they are on their own:

I didn't have enough pink fleece for the pants, but fortunately I had one scrap left over from the purple fleece dress I made Fern last year that was big enough to make up the difference. I like that it goes along with the pink / purple theme of the outfit but is a little bit different and continues the theme of color blocking. I used some purple elastic for the waist which is basically just top-stitched right onto the waist line. I modified a pattern I made for her last summer which was created by disecting a pair of stained pants that fit her well. I did end up adding a little bit extra to the top of the rear of the pants before adding the waist band after having her try them on and squat down for me. She's a princess, not a plumber. I didn't hem the cuffs on these pants. I love how fleece provides that option. I did use a flat felled seam for the crotch, and am very happy with that. It looks neat, lays flat on the inside and hopefully will hold up to wear well.

 And Althea of course needed to try on her sister's unicorn hat

Althea also got some fleecies to go under that red dress. It's hard to read the coloring here, but the pants are a dark hunter green which was the fleece that I chose for my dress. The hearts are red scraps from her dress. So now she can where them together without being too ridiculously matchy matchy. I love these little pants. They look much more finished than Fern's - although you can get away without hemming fleece, it does look nice when you do. There is a couple inches of extra length basted up in a hem on the bottom of the leg (I probably wouldn't have bothered doing it, but the extra length was sliding under her feet when she tried them on). I didn't want to lose any of the height of the waist, so I added a fleece waist band that is encasing a 1/2 " wide elastic which is a slightly shorter length than the rest of the waist band. These pants have a flat felled seam at the crotch as well. I'm hoping to get a few years out of them! 

Here's a little parting shot of the back pleat on the red dress!

I hope to be posting a little more frequently now that the holidays are over. Let's see what the new year will bring!